Part 3 – The Chase

"Katara," the voice spoke quietly. It sounded very far away. Katara opened her eyes to the bright light. There was a faint song being hummed. She could hear it.

"Katara," her name was a little louder this time. She opened her eyes again. Along with the light a figure was in view too. Katara blinked as she recognized Aang's face outlined by trees. His head blocked the bright sunlight that had entered her eyes before. Now, his face was in focus. She smiled.

"Hey, Katara. Good morning," Aang said moving out of the way so she could stretch.

"How do you know it's morning?" she asked remembering their problem earlier.

"I don't, but it's brighter than it was before so I assumed it must be morning," Aang said turning up toward the sky.

"Why don't you just jump to the top and see where we are," Katara suggested, still groggy from waking up and not in full control of choosing what to say.

Aang was shocked. Katara was a little shocked too, at the suggestion she made. "I thought of that, too," he said sadly. "But it's too high to the top and I wouldn't be able to make it carrying someone with me."

"Leave me down here, then," Katara said. She was completely waken up, now.

Aang turned to her, "No," he said firmly. "I will not leave you down here alone. What if more of those things come? I'm going to protect you."

Katara stepped in front of him and held him by his forearms. "Aang, listen to me. If we get out of here, I'll never be in danger again, and if the only way to get out of here is for you to leave me down here and jump to the top of a tree, then we have to try it." She looked him straight in the eyes. "I'll be fine for a few minutes down here, by myself."

He nodded. Katara let go of his arms and took a few steps back. Aang used airbending to boost his jump and hopped from tree to tree before he reached the top. By the time he reached the top of the trees, Aang was in the clouds.

Aang looked around confused by what he saw. The combination of water and air particles he had thought was there was nothing but an illusion. There was no sky. Above the trees was the emptiness that had surrounded him and Katara before. This was really confusing.

"Aang! What do you see?" Katara called.

Aang shook his head and rubbed his eyes making sure he wasn't imagining it. Seeing nothing he could do, Aang jumped back down to join her.

Katara ran up to him as he landed, using airbending to soften his fall.

"What did you see? Which way is the way out?" she asked excitedly.

Aang's eyes were downcast. "Nothing, well, something very confusing. Katara, I don't think we're on earth anymore."

Katara was taken aback as if he had just insulted her. "What? Are we in the Spirit World then? Aang, are we dead?" she asked horrified at what the answer might be.

Aang shook his head. "We can't be in the Spirit World because our bending works and there's no bending in the Spirit World."

Katara sighed a breath of relief. "Then where are we?"she asked. Her question hung in the air.

There was silence for a moment as the wind rustled the vines and blew across the water surrounding their ankles.

"I could always try and contact Roku. Maybe he'd know where we are," Aang said breaking the tranquil silence.

Katara objected, "I don't think that's such a good idea right now." She said looking over Aang's shoulder. She gripped his arm.

"Why?"

Katara turned him around and he saw why she had suddenly become so timid. A giant black tigerdillo made it's way out of the shadows. When it's feet hit the water, it sizzled and evaporated into steam. The steam wound it's way around the tigerdillo's huge paws and sharp nails. The beast growled long, and haunting.

Katara stood behind Aang, holding his arm protectively to her, trembling as the beast came nearer.

Aang stood in place to afraid to move. The tension built.

Aang put his hand over Katara's hand that was still placed on his arm. He silently told her not to scream or make any sudden movements. The tigerdillo roared, and continued his circle around his prey. The two benders stood terrified in place.

Aang was quickly searching through his brain for any possible information he could use against this creature. He had met these beasts before but not this close and not in the wild, and defiantly not ones that were this big.

Katara took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart. She mentally battled herself. She was a master waterbender! Aang was the AVATAR! For spirits sake, they shouldn't be so afraid of a little tigerdillo.

As if reading her thoughts, the tigerdillo growled again, making himself more menacing. As he passed around Katara, she could almost see the smirk in it's eyes.

'I got you now.'

Katara closed her eyes gripping Aang's arm with more force. She breathed again trying to calm herself down. Suddenly, she opened her eyes. Far in the back of her mind she heard the familiar humming.

"Wait a minute," she whispered. "Aang, do you hear that?"

Aang stood silent for a minute. The tigerdillo had ceased walking around them and had his ears perked up. Aang's eyes widened.

"It's that humming!" he exclaimed. The tigerdillo lost it's attention in the sweet melody and turned closer to the couple. They were still excited about the music.

Three things happened at the same moment: the tigerdillo pounced, Katara screamed, and Aang created a shield from the mud and water.

The tigerdillo's head broke through the shield but Aang and Katara were already racing through the water. The animal shook it's throbbing head and ran after it's prey.

Katara looked back to see the giant animal chasing them through the swamp.

"Aang!" she yelled to him, "We have company!"

Aang looked behind him too. The tigerdillo bounded through the water creating a steam trail behind him. Aang pulled Katara around a tight corner and she had to place her free hand on the ground so not to fall over. She leapt up and kept running. Aang leapt through a space in between two trees he pulled Katara through after him. Just as she squeezed through the space between the two trunks the tigerdillo's nose smashed into the opening. Bark flew off the tree and mist and steam covered the area. Katara and Aang shielded themselves from the projectiles. As the steam evaporated in the air Katara could make out the outline of the beast think head. It was caught between the two trunks. The beast pushed and pulled and tried to get it's head free but the tree's refused to let it go.

Aang draped his arm over Katara's shoulders and laughed at the beast's misfortunes. Katara, too, joined in on the fun.

"Well, look whose trapped now?" she mocked, her hands took their place on her hips. Aang laughed. The beast screamed, as if it heard her taunting words. It started to thrash wildly around, but it's head would not leave the hole. Once it's spasm was over and the beast was breathing heavily, it roared and began again.

Aang moved his arm more protectively around Katara's shoulders. "Maybe we should go?" he suggested and she agreed, leaving the beast to wallow in it's agony.

Katara and Aang's laughter flowed through the tall trees.

"Did you see the look on it's face when it smashed into the tree!" Aang exclaimed. "It was funny, terrifying and awesome, all at the same time."

Katara laughed and curled her fingers around Aang's hand.

"How did you do it, Aang?" she asked.

"Do what?"

"Know how to trap that animal! You don't know anything about trapping."

"Well, I wasn't really thinking about that. The whole time, the only thing that was going through my mind was: I had to get you out and I had to protect you."

Katara looked into his eyes. "Thank-you," she whispered. "It was really brave." Then, she kissed him. Not on the cheek and not on his forehead; she kissed him on his lips. When the kiss ended and she pulled away, Aang was still grinning like an idiot.

"I'll never get tired of that," he whispered. His head felt as if it was not attached to his body and kept floating up into the clouds. Katara giggled, unfortunately, bringing him back to the real world. He took her hands in his and spun her around, splashing the murky water. Katara screamed in enjoyment and when they were finished spinning, she wrapped her arms around his neck to hold herself steady. A crow's caw echoed through the swamp, but that didn't break the connection the two established looking into each other's eyes. A melody softly flowed through the trees. Aang's head snapped to the direction of the music.

"It's the song!" Katara exclaimed letting go of Aang's neck. Aang quickly grabbed her hand.

"It's coming from this direction," Aang said running off to the right. He pulled Katara behind him. They stopped for a second and listened. The humming was becoming louder. "This way," Aang pulled her straight through some vines and when they removed them, a bright light covered them both and they had to shield their eyes. Aang's foot touched solid ground and he looked down in amazement.

"Katara," he said, holding her hand tight. "We're out of the swamp!" He pulled her out of the swamp and onto the hard ground. He hugged her tightly

"I knew we'd find the way out!" Katara rejoiced hugging him back. The two looked around at their new landscape. It seemed the swamp was in a valley surrounded by mountains. They were standing in a grassy meadow. Right in front of them was a tall mountain that seemed to stand in front of the rest. Aang looked back at the swamp and towards the sky. It was blue.

'That's odd," he thought, then Katara pulled him out of his thoughts by tugging on his hand.

"I bet if we look around we could find a village or something!"

"Yeah," Aang said distantly.

"Aang, is something wrong?" Katara asked immediately knowing his distress.

"Katara, remember this morning when I went up to the top of the trees?" Aang asked not bothering to answer her question.

"Yeah."

"Well, when I got up to the top, there wasn't any sky. There wasn't anything."

Katara was confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Katara, I think this is a tra–" he didn't have enough time to finish the sentence before the earth began to shake.


"Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." lol Sorry just had to put that in.

I know I promised myself I wouldn't put any author's notes in this to make it seem you were actually reading a real story so I'm just gonna tell you guys now that the last chapter of this story will be posted with an extremely long AN to tell you about the story.

I don't own Avatar or The Wizard of Oz.